You need a stepper motor, a power supply and a driver.

Outside of that – I am none the wiser, sorry. But this is something I would like to do too. I was a little reluctant to ask as I am not sure I would understand the answer.

What I would really like is someone to come along and show me a shopping list of components. I could probably work it out myself from there.

graham.

Dave, Graham,

Some years ago there was an article in MEW on motorizing a tailstock hand wheel. It had all the ingredients you need to make it and could be adapted to suit your needs. I'll try and look it out tomorrow, unless anyone else can come up with the MEW number first.

Cheers

John

To answet the question as posed

1 stepper/ stepper gearbox combo…suitable torque and size [too small motor even if geared for torque might be too slow)

2 coupling between machine and above

3 stepper driver electronics to suit 1 above..

4 psu to suit 1 and 3 above

5 variable frequency pulse genertor to signal steps [also knob ]..to stepper drive above…

6 forward reverse switch connected to 3 above..

plus swarfproof box etc.

or..cordless drill —speed control fwd/rev .gear box and torque limit all built in..

Edited By jason udall on 26/11/2013 23:44:53

Here's what I did. Avoids the need for a lot of the stuff Jason listed. Depends what you have to hand – I couldn't find a suitable drill driver….

The drive dog was a snug fit on the output gear of the motor gearbox.

I just had one wing nut to secure the assembly. The pillar was quite rigid enough.

The assembly simply swaps out for the hand wheel.

Not pretty but it works. 3 position switch gives forward / stop / reverse. Motor is 24V nominal (ie spends most of its time at 28V) and the PSU was a 0-30V, 0-2A (I think) El Cheapo lab power supply. Sat next to the machine so I could adjust the voltage (speed) and current (max torque).

There is a similar PSU to the one I got currently available from Maplin at about 90 quid. Arguably, with a current limited PSU like this you can get away without limit switches.

Hope this is useful in some way.

Muzzer

My method is crude in the extreme. An old wound field 12V wind screen wiper motor, with the shaft of the worm wheel extended to take a 10 tooth sprocket. A 20 tooth sprocket is fitted to the lead screw, next to the hand wheel, a bit of bike chain of suitable length is joined up, make it loose enough that it can be easily lifted off. A switch that gives on, off, on for left, off, right, and a power supply, mine is 18V, but a battery charger should do it, 20V+ would be OK, even better would be a truck wiper motor for 24V, a 36V power supply would be about right. Took me about 2 hours to make, including the sprockets, it could be a lot tidier, but it works. Ian S C

Right then, trip to the scrapyard it is. Some terrific ideas that I can easily build on/modify.

As a bit of trivia, I do know that one Mig welder manufacturer used to use Volvo windscreen wiper motors as the feed motor because of their reliability.

I will let you know how I get on but today is my day off – so I am off to the workshop to catch up with all the projects I have half finished/started. Pics to follow!

graham.

Or you could add one of the commercial units shown on my smaller mill above. Axminster and others used to sell them